Cordia's Birthday!

It's fun having a birthday in a country that's 14 hours ahead of your home country...then it's like it's your birthday for 2 days! My 24th birthday wasn't too wild. It didn't really get out of hand, but it was certainly meaningful. It started out on Wednesday when we got a package from Becky. And you may not believe me when I say that THERE WAS A CAKE IN THE PACKAGE! That's right...a delicious, moist cake mailed all the way from home! And it was scrumptious. It really was moist and perfect. It even came with birthday candles, so of course, even though I had several days to go, we went ahead an lit the candles, enjoyed a solo rendition of "Happy Birthday," and dug into the cake. Yummy!

Then on Sunday, Mitch baked me my favorite chocolate cake recipe ever: Perfectly Chocolate Hershey's Cake. It was perfectly chocolately, but it wasn't too cakey. Turns out, baking in a toaster oven doesn't produce the same results as you would expect from a regular oven.

Despite what it looks like, I had actually been awake for several hours in this photo. Ha! I guess I just hadn't looked in the mirror.


On Monday, I got a strange looking package from my family....my co-workers guessed that it was a nice painting, but I assured them that it was probably just shaped like that because Mom and Will had duck taped a recycled box together....


Looks like we were both right! The box was made from random pieces of boxes and duck tape, but it had a painting inside!....along with other surprises. Ha! Mom's bag lady habits came in handy! What an awesome display of gifts...they were all super glued, hot glued or taped to the board. Candy, snacks, a Texas Rangers baseball cap from Gavin, some new pants, my sister's regional track video and one act play video, sunglasses, and letters...


A double layered gift. Under all the goodies was a painting my mom made for me. :)


Believe it or not, this was the first of Cordia's birthdays that we have been able to spend together since we met.

May 24, 2006 - Mitch is taking summer classes in College Station, TX, and Cordia is on a vacation to Oregon
May 24, 2007 - Cordia is at home in Sunray, TX, and Mitch is studying abroad in Australia
May 24, 2008 - Cordia is at home again, and Mitch is at the Grand Canyon
May 24, 2009 - Cordia and Mitch are together, in their cozy little apartment in Daegu, South Korea.

I'm very happy that Cordia and I were able to spend this one together finally. I hadn't realized how special celebrating the birthday of the one you love, actually in the presence of that one, is. Given all my adventurous excuses for missing her previous birthdays, I'll say that this was my most favorite May 24 in all my life.

-Us

Strangers

Back home, you don't think too much about how many different colors of skin, different styles, and different languages are spoken every day around you. Really there are so many different kinds of people....different in all different ways...

Here, we've found that a person of a different background is quite a spectical. Since being here, we have had people stop in their tracks to stare at us, take pictures of us, and kids scared off by us. Most of the time, it is not done in a demeaning manor....just out of curiosity.

A few months ago, we went on a field trip with our Hapkido gym. There were about 100 hapkido kidos who went on the trip, and boy howdy were we the center of attention! Especially Mitch. We had a group of 10 or so kids at our heals most of the day...reciting every English word they could possibly think of, taking pictures of us, getting our autographs, giving us snacks, and just standing by us to look cool. :) It was pretty funny....and fun!

Here we are sitting on a bench with our new friends. As we sat on this bench (probably for about 20 minutes) 3 different groups of kids came and sat across from us to talk to us or just look at us if they didn't know English. It was like they had a rotating schedule...."Okay! Your 7 minutes is up! Now it's our turn to sit by the foreigners!"






At the end of the day, we were asked to be in every single hapkido group picture! Even with the kids who don't go do our gym! HaHa! What a fun day....


In addition: It's funny that we made this post today because later this afternoon, we went to play frisbee at a nearby park, and we saw the main kid who was obsessed with Mitch! We had stopped in to get some ice cream at a convenient store, and the kid was there too. He got so excited. He offered to buy Mitch's ice cream, and he stood by us the entire time we were looking at the ice cream selections, making several suggestions. Ha! Ha! What a funny kid..

Shooty!

Well, we missed getting our hapkido award by 2 points, but we are proud to announce that our yellow belts have officially retired. No longer Yellow Bellies!


Now we will work for our red belts...

-Us

Hapkido Blue Belt Test

We took our blue belt test on Friday. Our Master said that we did so well that we'll receive a certificate! Everything wasn't perfect, but after watching this video and comparing it to our first test, we can really see an improvement in the way we move. Hope you enjoy the video.



We posted an entry a few days ago too, so don't miss it down below!

-Us

Gyeongju, Geoje-do, Oe-do, and Haeinsa (a rather overdue update)

So we've finally realized that we don't need to spend 2 hours writing a blog, making sure every detail is perfect. That belief combined with the fact that we've done something new every weekend left no time to update. Since the beginning of April, we have been busy busy enjoying this great weather. Before we got to Korea, we vowed to go somewhere different every weekend. The first few months made that difficult because the weather was not desirable traveling weather. But since the first day of Spring, we have stuck to our vow, traveling somewhere different every weekend!

A few of the highlights are two trips to Gyeongju (the capital of the Korean peninsula during the Silla Dynasty), a tour to Geoje-do and Oe-do (two scenic islands in the South Sea), and yet another Buddhist temple, Haeinsa.

We'll start with our first trip to Gyeongju. It was the beginning of Spring, and the Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom. Here we are celebrating this happening at the Cherry Blossom Festival.


On our second trip to Gyeongju, we went to a famous temple here in Korea, Bulguksa.


This structure houses an 8ft. bell at the entrance to the Seokguram (a Buddhist grotto in the mountains).


A few weekends ago, we went on a tour of a couple islands in the South Sea of Korea. It was strictly sight-seeing, and the sights were beautiful. The next 4 shots are of this tour.


After hiking all around this beautiful island, you can sit down on the rocky coast and enjoy some fresh sushi snacks!


This island (Oe-do) is privately owned by a couple who bought it about 30 years ago and have spent those years transforming it into this magnificent garden. It felt as though we were walking in a Dr. Suess book.


Here we are with our friend who stopped us on the path to offer us some soju (korean rice wine). He also gave us his business card and told us to come visit him! Perhaps we will....
Last weekend, we made a trip to another temple complex, Haeinsa. Here, we were able to help paint the intricate designs on one of the shrines.


Not really. But we were able to watch the artists at work. They are truly talented.

Here is a photo of one of the Buddha statues in one of the shrines. You are not supposed to take close up pictures of these statues, so since this was taken at a distance, it doesn't do it justice. Actually, even the best photo would not be able to reinvent the true feeling of seeing it. Use the person's noggin' at the bottom of the photo as a size reference.


And here we are at the top of Gaya Mountain. It was a long and tiresome trek, but man was it worth it!


And that's our past few weeks in a nutshell. Sorry for the delay, but as you can see, there is much to be done in this small country, and it keeps us busy.

-Us